365 Days- Book I

48. The Stars

August 17, 2018

"Take inspiration from a night sky. Or, write about a time when "the stars aligned" in your horoscope."

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I will not write about the second option, for the 'stars do not align' in my horrorscope (I do not care that it is the wrong spelling, it is indeed a 'horror'scope); no, my dears, they do not. In fact the planets treat my horoscope as a playground, engaging in a very irritating game of hide and seek (they hide and I search for for planetary mediation or divine intervention) or convert it into a war zone; retrograde Saturn casts a malevolent aspect on the planet in the house opposite his while the Sun is cosy with Venus, which is not a beneficial to me or anyone, if the astrological pundits are to be believed. Further, it appears that Mercury is in the enemy's house while Jupiter is in his own house but is not benevolent considering where the moon is...see that is what I meant when I said the planets are playing games with me. So I am sure that those 'stars' will never align.

However, I adore starry nights, watching the heavens draped in dark black velvet with tiny sparkling gems, each pinpoint of light is of a different shape, each is of a different hue and each shines with a different brightness. It is the splendour of creation is a glorious display of vastness and endlessness. Somehow the sight of starry nights is one that fills me with awe and wonder and I can stay up nights watching it.

The stars also bring to mind some of my favourite poems, which, since I wish to show off, will add them here.

The first is Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats:

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.  

It is such a dreamy declaration, I feel it would make a great proposal too.

The other is the one, a line of which I have used in the banner above; it is a poem by Sarah Williams (often wrongly attributed to Galileo) and is titled, "The Old Astronomer to his Pupil"

Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,

When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;

He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how

We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,

Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,

And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,

And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.

But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,

You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,

What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and smiles;

What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles!

You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,

But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

Brilliant, are they not?

Starry nights are some of my best memories too; childhood ones, where during power cuts on summer nights, we would sit in the veranda steps starring at the skies, half asleep and half away, gazing at those stars. And if those were in my maternal uncle's house, we even had cousins around; it made talking fun.

Then there are some nights, when I wake up suddenly and unable to go back to bed, stand at the window staring at the smog covered heavens; the city lights shine brighter than the stars, yet their brilliance is never dulled.

However, my favourite starry night is one where I spent walking in the deserted street in a sleepy town at two in the night, with a couple of street dogs and school friends for company as we relived our adventures of our school days and the experiences of life. 

Starry nights and warm friendship is a scintillating combination and leaves sparkling memories for life.

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